Emirates Leaks monitors UAE failure to cover up human rights abuses
The state security apparatus failure to cover up human rights violations is being investigated as international reports show the dark side of the UAE that illustrates torture, detention, and ill-treatment of citizens and expatriates.
At the same time, the UAE authorities failed to face international questions, which affect their local and international policy.
Convictions and solidarity campaigns with the UAE’s cancer-stricken UAE detainee Alia Abdelnour have continued amid rising demands for her release.
The International Freedom Campaign in the UAE, a non-governmental organization based in London, produced a short film about Alia’s arrest, which according to activists, has become a “human rights icon.”
The campaign indicated that authorities refuse to provide her adequate medical care asserting that “Alison” – the film’s name – is a representation of Alia’s condition.
Alia suffers from cancer, which has become worse because of the medical negligence over the past three years at the state security hospitals in Abu Dhabi and before her recent transfer to Tawam Hospital for cancer treatment.
The European Parliament
On 19 February, the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the European Parliament held a hearing on the human rights situation in the Gulf States. Matthew Hedges, a British researcher who was imprisoned in the UAE on trumped-up espionage charges, participated.
In his article on “LobeLog” website, Eldar Mamedov, political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the EP delegations for inter-parliamentary relations with Iran, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, and Mashreq, talks about the dark side of the UAE, where in recent years the human rights situation in the Gulf has received the scrutiny it deserves in the European Parliament.
The European scrutiny of human rights is not equal among the Gulf states, Mamedov says. Saudi Arabia has attracted the most attention, partly because of its size and status in the Muslim world as the guardian of the two Holy Mosques.
“Overall, however, the reaction to human rights abuses in and by the UAE is much more subdued,” Mamedov said. Adding that this is because “Emiratis enjoy a much better image in Brussels and other Western capitals than their Saudi peer.”
UAE diplomats, lobbying companies and public relations are working to serve Abu Dhabi and present it as a “beacon of modernity, tolerance, and inclusion in a region where these values are often found wanting,” Mamedov said. He pointed out that the recent visit of Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi for an interfaith meeting was important in promoting this positive image of the UAE.
Campaigns and questions
Human rights activists launched a website highlighting human rights violations in the UAE for hosting the Expo 2020.
The site presents information highlighting human rights abuses committed by the UAE, both internally and externally, and contains interactive images of the arrest of dozens of bloggers, human rights activists and dissidents.
In an article published in the American newspaper, Michigan Daily is the answer to the question ‘why does the UAE invest in Manchester City of England and pays billions of dollars for its winning!?’
The article by Zach Bloomberg describes what happened and how Abu Dhabi uses “soccer in its geopolitical game.”
The author said, that “the UAE’s sports-based rebranding project is far from the wholesome, educational endeavor it claims to be. Rather, it is highly problematic and disingenuous. Mansour may promote the UAE as a glamorous, exotic country whose ownership represents the nation’s own success and positivity, but that simply isn’t true. As City’s obscenely expensive squad runs circles around their Premier League opponents, there are many things going on back in the UAE that Mansour would probably prefer weren’t mentioned.”
A former British detainee in the UAE said he used to fear for his life during his detention in the country for the past few weeks. “I was sure I would die,” said Ali Issa Ahmed. Adding that he was stabbed with a knife, beaten and deprived of sleep and food.
Issa Ahmed spoke a day after returning to Britain after diplomatic and media pressure on February 14.
